STORRS – Alex Karaban wasn’t going to let Seton Hall spoil his day.
In an emotional final game at Gampel Pavilion, after he became the first active player inducted into the Huskies of Honor on Senior Day, Karaban made two free throws with 20.9 seconds on the clock to give UConn a three-point lead over the Pirates trying to play spoiler. The Huskies forced an air ball at the other end and Solo Ball sealed a 71-67 win from the free throw line – where the game was nearly lost.
The program’s all-time winningest player, Karaban never left the court and scored a game-high 23 points on 8-for-11 shooting as UConn, now 27-3 on the season and 17-2 in the Big East, kept its hopes of a Big East regular-season championship alive.
“I could not leave with a last loss here,” the captain said at the center of the Huskies’ logo after the game, emotional again as he thanked the home fans one final time.
Ball finished with 14 points, freshman Braylon Mullins added 11 and Tarris Reed Jr., also in his final home game as a Husky, recorded his eighth double-double of the year with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Point guard Silas Demary Jr. took just two shots but dished nine assists as the Huskies finished with 17 on 21 made field goals.
Seton Hall, the Big East’s worst 3-point shooting team at just 29% on the season, nearly played upset from beyond the arc as it saw eight of its first 12 attempts fall, building a lead of as many as eight points in the final 10 minutes of regulation. The Pirates committed 21 fouls in the game and sent UConn to the free throw line for 29 shots, of which it missed eight.
The Pirates, on the wrong side of the NCAA Tournament bubble, dropped to 19-10 on the year and 9-9 in the league.
UConn started the game 3-for-12 from the field and fell into a four-minute scoring drought as the Pirates, aggressive and handsy on the defensive end, took a 14-11 lead around the 10-minute mark. It was Jayden Ross, usually a defensive sub, who got the offense going with a 3-pointer late in the shot clock and a two-handed slam on the next possession.
Then Karaban got going, finishing a layup inside before knocking down his first 3-pointer of the afternoon, which moved him past Christian Vital to No. 10 on the program’s all-time scoring list. The captain had 15 points in the first half on 6-for-8 shooting as the Huskies went into halftime trailing, 33-32.
Seton Hall forced eight turnovers before the break and limited the rest of the Huskies to just 5-for-17 (29%) from the field and 1-for-7 from beyond the arc. The Pirates shot 50% (12-for-24) over the first 20 minutes and made three of their five 3-point attempts after making just one on 16 attempts in the first matchup on Jan. 13, and going 0-for-18 in their last game against Georgetown.
The second half started just as ugly for the Huskies as Mullins went to the bench with his third foul just 13 seconds in. But Ball lifted the lid off the rim with a pair of much-needed 3-pointers after the Pirates’ lead grew to six, and Demary made a steal and found Ross in transition for a layup that put the Huskies back in front.
But UConn’s offense fell into another drought, without a field goal for over four minutes until Eric Reibe powered through the paint for a layup through contact. But the 3s kept falling for the Pirates, who came into the game shooting just 29% from beyond the arc – worst in the Big East. Mike Williams and AJ Staton-McCray made a pair back-to-back and extended Seton Hall’s lead to eight points, 54-46, with nine and a half minutes to play.
Karaban’s first points of the second half were necessary ones as he cut the Huskies’ deficit to four points with his fourth 3-pointer of the game with less than eight minutes to play. The captain hit another and Mullins came with an encore, hitting his first from deep to give UConn the lead.
UConn was just 20-for-29 from the free throw line, but Ball went 3-for-4 in the final seconds to seal it. The Huskies will visit Marquette for their regular season finale on March 7.